Providing online promotions through social network platforms

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms are disclosed. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application or widget for integrating with the organization&#39;s social network webpage external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features such as friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities of users and people in the users&#39; social network, notifications, requests, and other social media-based platform features to deliver messages to members of the one or more social networks further spread the word about the organization&#39;s promotion.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/727,223 entitled “PROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIANETWORKS,” filed Mar. 18, 2010, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/186,052 entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORPROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORK-BASED PLATFORM,”filed Aug. 5, 2008, both of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entireties. This application claims the benefit of thefollowing applications, each of which is incorporated by reference inits entirety: (1) U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/033,119, entitled“METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH A SOCIALNETWORK-BASED PLATFORM”, filed Mar. 3, 2008; (2) U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/078,724, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDINGONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORK-BASED PLATFORM”, filed Jul.7, 2008; and (3) U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/161,224, entitled“METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH A SOCIALNETWORK-BASED PLATFORM”, filed Mar. 18, 2009.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to integrating online promotionsor campaigns with social networks. More specifically, the presentinvention enables organizations to run promotions integrated with viralfeatures of social networks and to access databases of social networksin conjunction with these promotions.

BACKGROUND

Social networking sites allow users to upload and share photographs andnotes with friends, generate personalized newsfeeds, and monitor andinteract with the activities of users' friends; and to request andestablish connections with other users on the social networking site bybecoming friends within the user's social network, for example.

SUMMARY

Embodiments include methods, apparatuses and computer-readable media forproviding online promotion technology integrated within a socialmedia-based platform. A self-service technology platform is describedthat enables individuals or organizations to run different types ofpromotions such as contests, sweepstakes, coupons, and giveaways thatcan tap into the viral features of online social networks. Anorganization can use this online promotion technology to run a varietyof campaign or promotional formats online including but not limited to:sweepstakes; contests; instant win games; participant-generated contentcontests (including contests where the general public votes to determinethe winner or winners); games; company-branded games (includingadvergames); prediction markets; product sampling; and providing couponsor discounts as a way to increase product and brand awareness, tocollect consumer information, and to drive purchases. The socialmedia-based platform provides certain viral features such as: the invitefriends feature; newsfeeds; minifeeds; notifications and other requests;and indications of advertising applications on the user's social mediaprofile page that spread the word about the promotion and organization.

Participants entering an online promotion may select names of friendswithin their social network to receive an invitation to enter apromotion. After participants enter the promotion, the socialmedia-based platform may generate a newsfeed appearing on a newsfeedpage of social networks of their selected friends. The newsfeed isgenerated if the user chooses to publish a newsfeed. This newsfeedcontains not only text telling readers about the promotion, but alsographical banners promoting the brand of the organization running thepromotion. Readers may click on these banners, newsfeed text, or otherlinks to be directed to a promotion entry form. The graphical bannersmay include videos, artwork, or audio clips uploaded by participants ofparticipant-generated content contests.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a plurality of client devices, asocial network server, a mobile telephone network server, and a webapplication server coupled via a network according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts an example system for generating and running an onlinepromotion through a social media-based platform including a webapplication server coupled to a promotions database and participantdatabase according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3A depicts an example of a social media user database storing asocial media user's profile information and network contacts accordingto one embodiment.

FIG. 3B depicts an example of a participant database storing participantprofile information and participant responses according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3C depicts an example of a promotions database storing organizationprofile information, promotion information, and promotion banners,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow chart of a process of establishing a customizedpromotion with a web application server according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5A depicts a flow chart of processing promotion entries andpost-promotion processing according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5B depicts a flow chart of processing promotion entries andpost-promotion processing according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6A depicts a screen shot of a promotional coupon according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 6B depicts a screen shot of a setup process where an organizationcan control recipient information displayed on a coupon or voucheraccording to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described in detail below is a system and method of a web-basedpromotion technology to run an online promotion campaign integratedwithin social media-based platforms in order to take advantage of theirviral features. Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketingtechniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases inbrand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such asproduct sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous tothe spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouthdelivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet, forexample. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactiveFlash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or eventext messages.

The terms social media-based platform and social media network may beused interchangeably. The terms promotion and campaign may be usedinterchangeably. Organizations may include individuals, for-profitcompanies or businesses, non-profit organizations, clubs, associations,community groups, and government organizations. Organizations may alsopromote third party organizations' goods and services. Social medianetworks include, for example: social media networks such as Facebook,Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Hi5, and Ning; social networkaggregators that consolidate updates from social websites such as socialnetworks, social bookmarking sites, and blog entries, that allow a userusing multiple social websites to have a consolidated stream ofinformation on all their activities across those websites, such asFriendFeed and Socialthing!; specialized social media networks, forexample YouTube which is dedicated to sharing video; online virtualworlds that allow users to meet and network with other users, such asSecond Life; services that allow websites external to social medianetworks to access social media user data, such as FriendConnect,Facebook Connect and MySpace Data Availability; and other Web 2.0platforms that allow for making connections, sharing, and communicatingthrough the use of viral elements.

Consumers may participate in the online promotion through one or moresocial media-based platforms, and the social media-based platforms'viral features are adapted to spread word of the online promotion. Viralfeatures include, but are not limited to, invite friend features,newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities ofusers and people in the users' social network, notifications, requests,other social media-based platform features that enable messages to bedelivered to members of the one or more social media-based platforms,and an indication of a user's selected applications on the user's socialmedia profile page.

Various aspects of the invention will now be described. The followingdescription provides specific details for a thorough understanding andenabling description of these examples. One skilled in the art willunderstand, however, that the invention may be practiced without many ofthese details. Additionally, some well-known structures or functions maynot be shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring therelevant description. The terminology used in the description presentedbelow is intended to be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner,even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed descriptionof certain specific examples of the invention. Certain terms may even beemphasized below; however, any terminology intended to be interpreted inany restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as suchin this Detailed Description section.

Organizations have long used promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests,instant win games, participant-generated content contests (includingcontests where the general public votes to determine the winner orwinners), quizzes, games, company-branded games (including advergames),product sampling, and coupons or discounts, as a way to increase productand/or brand awareness, collect consumer information, and drivepurchases. The internet has proven to be a highly effective medium forrunning promotions, and many websites have used online contests andother online promotions as a way to drive traffic to their websites andto collect consumer information.

Recently, social media networks such as MySpace and Facebook have becomean increasingly popular way for internet users to interact with friendsand share information online. Social media users have the ability toeasily share information with others in their social network. Forexample, social networks provide tools such as automatically generatednewsfeeds and minifeeds that display the online activities of users andpeople in the user's social network, and simple-to-use “invite friends”features allow a social media user to easily invite friends in theuser's social network to join an event or action or even invite friendsnot currently participating in a social network to join that socialnetwork and the event. A social media user may discover new productsthrough the recommendations of friends within the social network. Thus,social networks have become an enormously powerful mechanism for virallyspreading information about brands, products, ideas, and people.

Some organizations running online promotions have tried to tap intosocial networks by advertising their promotions to social media usersvia online banners within social networks. However, when a social mediauser clicks on one of these banners they are directed to theorganization's website outside of the social network where they enterthe promotion. While this method of advertising promotions throughsocial networks has enabled these organizations to encourage some socialmedia users to enter their promotion, it has not enabled them to benefitfrom the viral or word-of-mouth power of the social networks becauseusers are directed outside of the social media network to interact withthe promotion. For this reason, up until now, organizations runningpromotions have been unable to harness the full power of socialnetworks.

Described below is a promotion technology to be integrated withparticipating social media-based platforms that may be used by anorganization to run a customized online promotion so that theorganization's promotion can tap into a number of viral featuresprovided by the social media-based platforms including, but not limitedto, friend invite feature, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other socialmedia-based platform features that display the online activities ofusers and the people in their social network, notifications, requests,other social media-based platform features for delivering messages tomembers of the one or more social media-based platforms, and anindication of a user's selected applications on the user's social medianetwork profile page, that can help to spread the word about thepromotion in a highly efficient and cost effective way.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram 100 of a plurality of client devices102A-N with user interfaces 104A-N, a social media network server 108, asocial network user database 110, a mobile telephone network server 109,a mobile telephone user database 111, a web application server 112, aparticipant database 116, and a promotions database 114 coupled via anetwork 106, according to one embodiment. More than one social networkserver 108, mobile telephone network server 109, social network userdatabase 110, and mobile telephone user database 111 may be coupled tothe network 106. Also, more than one web application server 112,promotions database 114, and participant database 116 may be coupled tothe network 106. Only one of each is shown in FIG. 1 for clarity.

The plurality of client devices 102A-N may be any system, device, and/orany combination of devices/systems that are able to establish aconnection with another device, a server and/or other systems. Theclient devices 102A-N typically include display or other outputfunctionalities to present data exchanged between the device and a user.For example, the client devices may be, but are not limited to, aserver, a desktop computer, a computer cluster, a mobile computingdevice such as a notebook, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, amobile phone, a smart phone, a PDA, a BlackBerry™ device, and/or aniPhone, etc. In particular, the Google Android software platform allowsdevelopers to write software applications to integrate third partyapplications with users of mobile devices, and Apple also allows thirdparty applications developers access to the iPhone platform. In oneembodiment, client devices 102A-N are each coupled to the network 106.In some embodiments, the client devices may be directly connected to oneanother.

The network 106, to which the client devices 102A-N are coupled, may bea telephonic network, an open network, such as the internet, or aprivate network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. The network106 may be any collection of distinct networks operating wholly orpartially in conjunction to provide connectivity to the client devicesand servers, and may appear as one or more networks to the servicedsystems and devices. In one embodiment, communications may be achievedby a secure communications protocol, such as secure sockets layer (SSL),or transport layer security (TLS). In one embodiment, communications maybe achieved via one or more wireless networks.

The client devices 102A-N may be coupled to the network, for example,the internet, via a dial-up connection, a digital subscriber loop (DSL,ADSL), cable modem, and/or other types of connection. Thus, the clientdevices 102A-N may communicate with remote servers (e.g., web server,host server, mail server, and instant messaging server) that provideaccess to user interfaces of the World Wide Web via a web browser, forexample.

The user databases 110, 111, promotions database 114, and participantdatabase 116 may store information such as software, descriptive data,images, system information, drivers, and/or any other data item utilizedby parts of the social network server 108, the mobile telephone networkserver 109, and/or the web application server 112 for operation. Userdatabases 110, 111, promotions database 114, and participant database116 may be managed by a database management system (DBMS), for examplebut not limited to, Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server,PostgreSQL, MySQL, FileMaker, etc. An example set of data to be storedin the social network user database 110, participant database 116, andpromotions database 114 is further illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3C.

The social network server 108 may be any combination of software agentsand/or hardware modules for establishing a social media-based platformfor users. The social network server 108 may facilitate interaction andcommunication among users of the client devices 102A-N, with the webapplication server 112, or with other related applications and/orsystems via the network 106. For example, the social network server 108may provide a platform for users of the client devices 102A-N who aremembers of the social network to upload photos and notes to share withother users of client devices 102A-N who are also members of the samesocial network. In one embodiment, the social network server 108 mayfacilitate sharing of information about news and activities of membersof the social network with other members designated as friends withinthe social network. The functionality of the social media-based platformmay also be distributed across multiple servers disposed across thenetwork 106.

The social network server 108 is, in some embodiments, able to store andretrieve data from the social network user database 110. In someembodiments, the social network server 108 is able to provide data fromthe social network user database 110 to another authenticated server,such as the web application server 112 via the network 106. Multiplesocial network servers 108 may be coupled to the network 106, with oneor more social network servers 108 providing services for distinctsocial networks.

The mobile telephone network server 109 may be any combination ofsoftware agents and/or hardware modules for establishing a mobiletelephone network for users. The mobile telephone network server 109 mayfacilitate interaction and communication among users of the clientdevices 102A-N, with the web application server 112, or with otherrelated applications and/or systems via the network 106. For example,the mobile telephone network server 109 may provide a platform for usersof the client devices 102A-N who are members of the mobile telephonenetwork to call or text message other users of the client devices102A-N. In one embodiment, the mobile telephone network server 109 maysupport web browsing over a mobile telephone.

The mobile telephone network server 109 is, in some embodiments, able tostore and retrieve data from the mobile telephone user database 111. Insome embodiments, the mobile telephone network server 109 is able toprovide data from the mobile telephone user database 111 to anotherauthenticated server, such as the web application server 112 via thenetwork 106. Multiple mobile telephone network servers 109 may becoupled to the network 106, with one or more mobile telephone networkservers 109 providing services for distinct mobile telephone networks.

The web application server 112 may be any combination of software agentsand/or hardware modules for generating a customized online promotion tobe used with a widget, and/or webpage, and/or promotion application tobe integrated with one or more social media-based platforms. Thepromotion application is used with a social media-based platform andallows participants to enter the promotion from within the socialmedia-based platform.

Alternatively or additionally, the web application server 112 maygenerate a customized mobile telephone promotion application for use inconjunction with a mobile telephone network platform and/or with mobiletelephone devices. The mobile telephone promotion application permits amobile telephone user to view and enter promotions generated by the webapplication server 112 without having to enter the internet browser onthe mobile telephone to enter the promotion.

The web application server 112 is, in some embodiments, able tocommunicate with client devices 102A-N via the network 106 to receivedetailed information about the promotion from the sponsoringorganization's representative through promotion administration software.The detailed information may be stored and retrieved in the promotionsdatabase 114 via the network 106.

After a customized online promotion has been integrated with a promotionapplication within a participating social media-based platform and/or awidget and/or a webpage, the web application server 112 may, in oneembodiment, receive completed promotion entry forms or promotion entrydata from participants. In one embodiment, a participant may interactwith the promotion or enter the promotion without submitting a promotionentry form. In one embodiment, the web application server 112 is able tocommunicate with the social network server 108 via the network 106 toreceive information about a participant from the participant's socialmedia profile. The entry form data and the information from theparticipant's social media profile may be stored, subject to a socialnetwork's privacy and third party developer guidelines, in theparticipant database 116 via the network 106 for later retrieval andanalysis.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram 200 illustrating a system for providing acustomized online promotion through the promotion administrationsoftware and integrating the online promotion with one or moresocial-media-based platforms and/or mobile telephone network platforms.The system may include a web application server 112 coupled to apromotions database 114 and/or a participant database 116, according toone embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 2, the web application server 112 includes anetwork interface 210, a firewall (not shown), a communications module220, a promotion generation module 230, a data collection module 240, adata analysis module 250, and a winner selection and notification module260. Additional modules or fewer modules may be included. The webapplication server 112 may be communicatively coupled to the promotionsdatabase 114, and/or the participant database 116 as illustrated in FIG.2. In some embodiments, the promotions database 114 and/or theparticipant database 116 are partially or entirely internal to the webapplication server 112.

In the example of FIG. 2, the network interface 210 may be one or morenetworking devices that enable the web application server 112 to mediatedata in a network with an entity that is external to the server, throughany communications protocol supported by the server and the externalentity. The network interface 210 may include, but is not limited to,one or more of a network adaptor card, wireless network interface card,router, access point, wireless router, switch, multilayer switch,protocol converter, gateway, bridge, bridge router, hub, digital mediareceiver, and/or repeater.

A firewall may, in some embodiments, be included to govern and/or managepermission to access data in a computer network, such as promotionsdatabase 114 and/or participant database 116, and track varying levelsof trust between different machines and/or applications. The firewallmay be any number of modules having any combination of hardware and/orsoftware components able to enforce a predetermined set of access rightsbetween a particular set of machines and applications, machines andmachines, and/or applications and applications, for example, to regulatethe flow of traffic and resource sharing between these varying entities.The firewall may additionally manage and/or have access to an accesscontrol list which details permissions including for example, the accessand operation rights of an object by an individual, a machine, and/or anapplication, and the circumstances under which the permission rightsstand.

Other network security functions may be performed or included in thefunctions of the firewall including, but not limited to,intrusion-prevention, intrusion detection, and personal firewalls. Insome embodiments, the functionalities of the network interface 210 andthe firewall are partially or wholly combined and the functions of whichmay be implemented in any combination of software and/or hardware, inpart or in whole.

In the example of FIG. 2, the web application server 112 includes thecommunications module 220 or a combination of communications modulescommunicatively coupled to the network interface 210 to manage aone-way, two-way, and/or multi-way communication sessions over aplurality of communications protocols. In one embodiment, thecommunications module 220 receives data, information, commands,requests, and/or text-based messages over a network. In one embodiment,the communications module 220 receives communications from a network(e.g., internet, wired and/or wireless network) initiated via aweb-interface.

Since the communications module 220 is typically compatible withreceiving and/or interpreting data originating from variouscommunication protocols, the communications module 220 is able toestablish parallel and/or serial communication sessions with users ofremote client devices for data and command exchange (e.g., userinformation and/or user content).

In addition, the communications module 220 can manage log-on requestsreceived from one or more users connecting to the web application server112 including, but not limited to, generating a new promotion, enteringa promotion, reviewing participant data for a promotion, selecting awinner for a promotion, and/or providing information to be included witha notification and/or newsletter to be sent to participants of apromotion. In some instances, authenticated sessions are managed by thecommunications module 220 for user logon processes.

For example, the system may utilize a username/email and passwordidentification method for authorizing access. The communications module220 may gather data to determine if a user is authorized to access thesystem and if so, securely logs the user into the system. In otherembodiments, other forms of identity authentication, such as securitycards and/or digital certificates may be utilized. A user may be able tospecify and/or obtain a logon ID after subscribing or registering.

The communications module 220 may also establish communication sessionswith a social networking server 108 to transmit customized promotionbanners and other information for displaying information about apromotion on a webpage within a social networking site or to transmit orreceive information about participants.

One embodiment of web application server 112 includes a promotiongeneration module 230. The promotion generation module 230 may be anycombination of software agents and/or hardware components able torequest and receive detailed information from an organization or companyabout the promotion to be generated. Based upon the receivedinformation, the promotion generation module 230 generates a customizedonline promotion to be used with a widget and/or webpage and/orpromotion application integrated with one or more social media-basedplatforms. In one embodiment, a customized business version of thepromotion application is provided to the administrator of anorganization running a promotion for adding to the organization's socialmedia network page in order to display a promotion banner on theorganization's social media network page. In one embodiment, thepromotion application can be used to display a promotion banner on theorganization's social network page because the promotion application isable to distinguish between downloads to a participant social networkpage and an organization social network page. In one embodiment, theorganization's social network page may be run from a business page ofthe social network, if the social network provides business pages fororganizations.

In one embodiment, a line of software code may also be provided by thepromotion generation module 230 for pasting into the organization'swebpage or other webpages external to participating social media-basedplatforms. The software code downloads a widget onto the webpage thatdisplays information for advertising the promotion and the organization.The widget integrates the promotion with the viral features of theparticipating social media-based platforms and accesses the datacontained in a participant's social media-based platform profile withoutrequiring participants to migrate away from the widget. The widget mayinclude, but is not limited to, clickable banners, clickable text, andclickable links. Upon clicking on any of the clickable objects, theparticipant may be provided a promotion entry form or some other way tointeract with the promotion in order to enter the promotion.

In one embodiment the organization may be provided with the option todisplay a clickable banner, button or link on the website(s) instead ofa widget. Clicking on the banner, button or link would take aparticipant to a webpage containing the promotion entry form

In one embodiment, the promotion generation module 230 provides alisting page within each participating social media-based platform ofall currently active promotions accessible from a webpage within thesocial media-based platform. In one embodiment, the listing page onlyincludes promotions that have recently been entered by the participant'ssocial network friends. In one embodiment, the listing page onlyincludes promotions that relate to the interests and/or demographic ofthe participant as determined by the participant's social networkprofile data. In one embodiment, the participant can pre-define whichtypes of promotions he wishes to appear on the listing page. In oneembodiment, a listing page of all currently active promotions isprovided on a webpage or webpages external to the participating socialmedia-based platforms

In one embodiment, the promotion generation module 230 may provide apromotion application to a participant for adding to the participant'ssocial network profile, if the participant has not previously entered apromotion through the promotion application.

In one embodiment, an online promotion for use with mobile telephones ona mobile telephone network platform may allow a mobile device user toaccess the promotion in multiple ways. The mobile device user maydownload to his mobile device a mobile phone promotion applicationdesigned for use with mobile devices, such as an iPhone. Alternatively,the mobile device user may access the device's browser and enter apromotion through the social network of his choice or the website of theorganization offering the promotion or another website external to theparticipating social media-based platforms. In both situations, theviral features of the social network or networks associated with thepromotion are available to increase awareness of the promotion and theorganization.

In one embodiment, the mobile telephone promotion application allowslocation-specific promotions to be offered. For example, if a mobilephone user is in proximity to a business running a promotion such as acontest or a coupon giveaway, the user receives an alert inviting theuser to enter or redeem the promotion.

In one embodiment, the mobile telephone promotion application may accessglobal positioning system (GPS) data provided by a participant's mobiletelephone. The GPS data can be used in conjunction with anorganization's promotion. For example, the GPS data may be used todetermine the eligibility of a participant for a promotion For example,if a participant is located within a predetermined area within a certaintime window, the participant would be eligible for a promotion or anincentive. Alternatively or additionally, the GPS data can be used toevaluate a participant, for example, measuring how quickly a participantcompletes a scavenger hunt promotion that requires participants to visitcertain points in a city or region. In one embodiment, the GPS data maybe used in the generation of activity feeds (such as newsfeeds andminifeeds) that display information about participants' interactionswith promotions that are being run using the mobile telephone promotionapplication. For example, when a participant enters a store that isrunning a promotion, a newsfeed may be generated in the participatingsocial network based platforms. In one embodiment, the GPS data can alsobe used by the mobile telephone promotion application to enable aparticipant to interact with the promotion.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a datacollection module 240. The data collection module 240 may be anycombination of software agents and/or hardware components able togenerate promotion entry forms for a participant and to receivecompleted promotion entry forms from participants, through thecommunications module 220. The promotion entry form may advertise thepromotion and allow the participant to interact with the promotion byentering the promotion and/or providing required information prior toentering the promotion.

In one embodiment, the data collection module 240 may provide a methodto advertise the promotion and for the participant to interact with thepromotion without the explicit use of promotion entry forms. Forexample, the data collection module 240 may collect data fromparticipants through questions used in part of a quiz promotion.

In one embodiment, a participant may be advised by the data collectionmodule 240 that by downloading the promotion application, theparticipant grants the web application server 112 permission to accessthe participant's unique identifier within the social network or themobile telephone network, and also accepts the terms of entering apromotion. Access to a participant's unique identifier enables the webapplication server 112 to send targeted information relating to thepromotion or the organization running the promotion to the participantthrough the social network server 108. Terms for entering a promotionmay include agreeing to receive unsolicited information, for example, anewsletter sent by either the web application server 112 or theorganization running the promotion. Alternatively or additionally, theterms for entering a promotion may include the participant's permissionfor the organization running the promotion to use the informationprovided by the participant to promote other goods or services that mayor may not be related to the underlying promotion or to promote otherrelated business activities of the organization. In one embodiment, ifan organization is promoting a third party organization's goods and/orservices, the terms for entering a promotion may include theparticipant's permission for the third party organization to useinformation provided by the participant for related business activities.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a dataanalysis module 250. The data analysis module 250 may be any combinationof software agents and/or hardware components able to analyze the datacollected from participants in a particular promotion through theparticipants' promotion entry forms or other forms of data resultingfrom participants' interaction with the promotion. The data analysismodule 250 may generate data that include, but are not limited to, dateand time of entries, unique identifiers of participants, participantinformation, such as email address or date of birth, and a demographicbreakdown of participants by age, gender, zip code, the average age ofparticipants, etc. The data analysis module 250 may also generateinformation about the types of contests, prizes, or offers thatgenerated the greatest number of entries, for example sporting eventtickets. In one embodiment, the data analysis module 250 may providenames and/or unique identifiers of participants who invited the largestnumber of friends to enter the promotion and/or names of participantswhose friend invites ultimately resulted in the greatest total number ofpeople who entered the promotion. In one embodiment, the data may benumerical, graphical, or both.

The data analysis module 250, through communications with thecommunications module 220, may make the data available to anorganization running the promotion at a particular secured website andmay also provide the analyzed data in a downloadable format, for examplein an Excel spreadsheet. Alternatively or additionally, the data may besent to the organization in an email through the communications module220.

In one embodiment, the data analysis module 250 may verify one or moreof the data provided by participants in the entry form or duringinteraction with the promotion. In one non-limiting example, aparticipant may be required to be at least 18 years old and/or from aspecific country, state or location before participating in a particularpromotion. Thus, the participant's age and/or geography may be verifiedprior to permitting the participant to enter the promotion. In anothernon-limiting example, a participant's email address or other entryinformation may be verified before permitting the participant to enterthe promotion or if a participant is selected as a winner, theparticipant's email address or other entry information may be confirmedprior to awarding of the prize.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a winnerselection and notification module 260. The winner selection andnotification module 260 may be any combination of software agents and/orhardware components able to randomly select one or more winners from allthe promotion entries, as specified by the promotion rules.Alternatively, the winner selection and notification module 260 mayselect a winner according to other criteria specified by the rules ofthe promotion. The winner selection and notification module 260 may notalways be used by an organization to select a winner. The organizationmay choose to select its own winner, for example, based upon subjectivecriteria such as the best slogan submitted for a product. If theorganization selects the winner, the organization may submit the name ofthe winner or winners to the winner selection and notification module260. Alternatively, submission of entries that are subjectivelyevaluated may be thrown open to judging by members of the socialnetwork. For example, each member of the social network may be permittedto vote a maximum number of times during the contest or a maximum numberof times per day for a preferred entry, and the winning entry is the onethat garners the greatest total number of votes at the close of thepromotion. By integrating user voting within the social media-basedplatform, viral features, such as newsfeeds and minifeeds, furtherspread the word about the promotion. For example, if the promotion werea video contest, members of a social network could vote for theirfavorite video, and the act of voting would generate a newsfeed thatincluded, but is not limited to, the name of the person, the name of thevideo that the person voted for, and the name of the organizationsponsoring the video contest. In addition, the video itself may beembedded in the newsfeed.

Once a winner is selected, whether by the winner selection andnotification module 260, by the organization running the promotion, byvoting, or by another method, the winner selection and notificationmodule 260 may, through the communications module 220, notify all theparticipants who entered the promotion of the identity of the winner orwinners. Notification may be by email or through custom messagesdirected to the social network inbox of all participants. In oneembodiment, instant win game contestants will be instantly notified onthe screen as to whether or not they have won a prize immediately afterentering and/or through one of the above notification procedures.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram 300A illustrating an example of a socialnetwork user database 110 that stores social network user profileinformation 110A and the user's social network contact information 110B,according to one embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3A, the social network user profile database 110Acan store user profile data, including descriptive data of personalinformation such as, but not limited to, a first name and last name ofthe user, a valid email address, a unique user identifier within thesocial network, birth date, gender, occupation, etc. User profile datamay further include interest information, which may include, but is notlimited to, activities, hobbies, photos, etc. In one embodiment, thesocial network server 108 may store the information in the socialnetwork user database 110, and the web application server 112 may bepermitted to access information in the social network user database 110if the user grants permission. The database 110 may also store a user'ssocial network contacts, for example, in database 110B. A user's socialnetwork contacts may be provided via one or more software agents and/orhardware modules coupled to the database 110B. For example, a user mayinvite a member of the social network to become a friend, and theinvited member may become listed as such in the user's list of socialnetwork contacts if the invited member agrees.

A mobile telephone user database 111 for a mobile telephone networkstores information similar to that of the social network user profile110A portion of the social network user database 110, such as name,address, and mobile telephone number.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram 300B illustrating an example of aparticipant database 116 that stores participant profile information116A and a participant's survey responses 116B, according to oneembodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3B, a participant's profile information is storedin database 116A. Participant profile information includes descriptivedata of personal information such as, but not limited to, a first nameand last name of the user, a valid email address, birth date, gender,zip code, one or more social network affiliations and/or mobiletelephone network affiliation, and a unique identifier on the one ormore social networks and/or mobile telephone network the participant isaffiliated with, etc.

The database 116 may also store a participant's responses to surveysand/or requests to invite friends, for example, in database 116B. Aprerequisite to being entered in a promotion may be for a user tocomplete a survey provided by the administrator of the promotion. Surveyquestions may include, but are not limited to, providing a name, anemail address, demographic information, an address for receiving freesamples and/or promotion materials and preference for joining a mailinglist. In one embodiment, survey questions may include the option ofelecting to join one or more groups associated with the one or moresocial media-based platforms and the organization or a third partyorganization. For example, a participant may be given the opportunity toclick a button or a link in order to become a fan of the organization'sFacebook page, and the organization is then permitted to send messagesvia the Facebook platform to this participant so long as the participantremains a fan. In one embodiment, clicking on a link or a button orchecking a box to elect to become a member of a group associated with anorganization will automatically result in the participant becoming amember. Alternatively, clicking on a link or button or checking a box toelect to become a member of a group associated with an organization willtrigger a pop-up window or a new browser window to open where theparticipant can take action to become a member of a group. Uponsubmission of a promotion entry form, the participant is shown a webpagelisting the names of the participant's social network friends, and hecan select friends to invite to enter the promotion. An organization mayprovide an incentive to contestants for inviting friends by, forexample, increasing the participant's chances of winning for each friendthat is invited or for each invited friend that subsequently enters thepromotion.

FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram 300C illustrating an example of apromotions database 114 that receives promotion information, accordingto one embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3C, the profile information for an organizationsubmitting a promotion is stored in database 114A. Organization profileinformation includes, but is not limited to, the name of theorganization, address of the organization, a website address for theorganization, names for one or more administrators within theorganization, an email address for one of the administrators of thepromotion, login identification, and passwords.

The promotions database 114 may also store promotion information indatabase 114B. Promotion information may include, but is not limited to,offered prize or prizes, discounts or other incentives, and descriptionsof those incentives, value of the incentives, official rules of thepromotion, requirements to enter the promotion, survey questions, theactive dates for the promotion, terms and conditions, and the privacypolicy of the organization with respect to information collected fromparticipants.

The promotions database 114 may also store banners and widgetsassociated with a promotion in database 114C. Types of banners include,but are not limited to, banners for placing on an organization's websiteto advertise the organization's promotion, interactive widgets,mini-banners displayed in newsfeeds generated by the social networkserver 108 that advertise the promotion, and banners for displaying to aparticipant after the participant submits his entry to the promotion. Inone embodiment, banners may be any size including, but not limited to,standard banner sizes, oriented horizontally, or oriented vertically.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram 400 illustrating an example process ofestablishing a customized promotion with the web application server,according to one embodiment. Prior to permitting a company ororganization to generate a customized promotion, the company ororganization must first create an account with the web applicationserver by transmitting account information to the system, preferablythrough a website, but mailed-in or faxed applications may also be usedfor creating an account on the system. The system receives the accountinformation at block 405. Account information may include, but is notlimited to, the organization's name, people permitted access to thecompany account, a billing address and billing information, such as acredit card number or billing authorization information. Theorganization is either assigned a login name and password, or theorganization's representative may choose them. By providing the correctlogin information for an organization, the organization's representativeis permitted to access the information for each promotion that theorganization has created. After creating an account, at block 410 theorganization's representative is prompted online by promotionadministration software for information to set up the organization'spromotion. A promotion may include, but is not limited to, sweepstakessuch as prize draws and instant win sweepstakes, contests such asparticipant-generated content contests like video, photo, or musiccontests and quizzes, discount vouchers or coupons, games, predictionmarkets, and product sampling.

In one embodiment, organizations can distribute individualized andsecure coupons or vouchers as a part of an online promotion throughsocial media channels using the techniques introduced here. Thesecoupons may be distributed through applications within the social mediaplatforms, such as Facebook or on webpages which may be integrated withFacebook Connect or other similar services that enable websites toaccess the profile information of social network users. The coupons orvouchers can contain information such as the name, birth date, birthyear, and social network profile photo of the participants interactingwith an online promotion. By offering the coupon or voucher via anapplication within a social network such as Facebook or via a webpagethat's integrated with Facebook Connect or a similar service,organizations are able to tap into the database of the participant'ssocial media profile to obtain and display identifying information aboutthe participant on the coupon or voucher. This enables the system toprovide the participant's information directly on the coupons orvouchers, which provides a much higher level of identification of couponholders than what has been previously available.

The information harvested from a participant's social network depends onwhat information the participant makes available on his or her socialmedia website. The advantage of this is that this technique provides anextra level of security for companies providing coupons because it isvery difficult for a coupon holder to just copy a bunch of coupons andgive them to their friends. Including personalized information about thecoupon holder on the coupons or vouches is a more secure method ofdistributing promotional incentives. For example, each coupon holder canbe limited to receiving a fixed number of coupons and can be forbiddenfrom passing along the coupon to other persons. Each coupon is uniqueand includes a unique code; and if the coupon holder has provided aprofile picture, the coupon can also include the coupon holder's profilepicture for further guarantees of security. These unique codes can begenerated and provided to the companies engaging in online promotions,or they can be generated externally and provided to the companies. Inone embodiment, a company's website may include a shopping cart that isable to generate unique codes, which can then be uploaded to a systemthat performs the techniques introduced here. Further, these coupons orvouchers may also include a time-stamp for further guarantees ofauthenticity.

FIG. 6A shows a screen shot of a promotional coupon that includes thephoto profile 605, and name and birth date 610 of the recipient couponholder that was available from the Facebook database. FIG. 6B shows ascreen shot of a set-up process where an organization's representativecan control the specific recipient information that gets displayed onthe coupon or voucher.

Details of the promotion may include, but are not limited to, the nameof the promotion, the prize or prizes, discounts or other incentives tobe offered along with a description and estimated value of theincentives, when the promotion begins and ends, requirements to enterthe promotion, incentives to invite friends, terms and conditions of thepromotion, and any applicable privacy policy. In one embodiment,standard terms and conditions and/or privacy policy may be offered tothe organization for use with the promotion. In one embodiment, theorganization may define a limit on the overall number of interactionsthat users may have with a promotion, for example, a limit on theoverall number of discount coupons that may be downloaded during thepromotion. The details of the promotion are received by the system atblock 410.

After submission of the promotion information, at block 415 theorganization's representative is prompted to define survey questionsand/or text to be included in a customized promotion entry form to bepresented to a potential participant. Survey questions may include, butare not limited to, name, address, email address, interests, hobbies,vocation, etc. In one embodiment, questions include data used by anorganization for marketing, branding, and/or future product linedecisions. The system receives this information at block 415.

At block 420, the company is prompted to upload to the system acustomized banner(s) or other design work for the promotion.Alternatively, template banner designs may be offered to the company forselection. Banners may be used to advertise the promotion and/or thebrand of the organization sponsoring the promotion. Several types ofbanners may be uploaded, including but not limited to, a banner to placeon the organization's social network webpage or company webpage, onother webpages within or external to a participating social media-basedplatform, or on a promotion widget on webpages within or external toparticipating social media-based platforms to advertise the promotion;mini-banners that may be displayed with newsfeeds, minifeeds and othersimilar user activity display features that are automatically generatedwhen a consumer enters the promotion; and a banner for display when aparticipant has finished entering the promotion. Banners are clickableand may direct a participant to a promotion entry form or other entrypoint for interacting with a promotion. Alternatively, banners displayedafter the participant has entered the promotion may direct theparticipant back to the organization's website or social network page.The system receives the banners and/or banner selections from theorganization at block 420.

At block 421, the organization is presented with a clickable button forintegrating its promotion with the promotion application in theparticipating social media-based platforms. Clicking this button willresult in the integration of the promotion with the promotionapplication in all participating social media-based platforms (PSNBP)and the organization's own website at block 422. In fact, participantsmay click a different button for each social network that they wanttheir promotion campaign to display on. Participating social media-basedplatforms are those social media-based platforms that are willing tosupport the promotion application and for which software is available tointegrate the promotion application with the particular socialmedia-based platform. Examples of online social media-based platformsthat may participate include Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, andFriendster. Integrating a promotion with the promotion applicationwithin a participating social media-based platform enables participantsto enter and interact with the promotion within a social network uponclicking a link to the promotion, such as found in a newsfeed or friendinvite, for example. It should be noted that the organization does notneed to maintain a webpage on a particular social media-based platformin order to have the promotion integrated with that platform. In oneembodiment, integrating a promotion enables the promotion to beintegrated with the viral features of a social network. In oneembodiment, it enables the promotion to be included in the promotionlistings page which is provided by the promotion application in each ofthe participating social media-based platforms and displays allpromotions currently integrated with the promotion application. In oneembodiment, the promotion applications' listing page of a given socialmedia-based platform is presented to a promotion participant aftercompletion of the entry process for a promotion so that the participantmay find other promotions of interest to enter.

In one embodiment, an organization can choose which participating socialmedia-based platforms they would like to integrate their promotion withrather than automatically having their promotion integrated with allparticipating social media-based platforms.

At block 423, the organization is prompted to select where it would liketo locate the entry point or entry points for its promotion. It canchoose to locate the entry point(s) on one or more webpages external tothe participating social media-based platforms or on one or morewebpages within the participating social networks. The system receivesthe entry point information from the organization at block 423.

When the chosen entry point is a webpage external to the participatingsocial media-based platforms, a participant interacts with a widget thatadvertises the promotion on the website(s). The participant clicks onthe widget to enter the promotion, and the widget displays the promotionentry form. The widget integrates the promotion with the viral featuresof the participating social media-based platforms and accesses the datacontained in a participant's social media-based platform profile withoutrequiring participants to migrate away from the widget. In oneembodiment, clicking on the widget enables the participant to interactwith the promotion (e.g. play a game, enter a quiz, scratch an instantwin card, upload a video) before the participant is required to completethe entry form. In one embodiment the participant can interact with thepromotion without completing an entry form. Upon completing the entryform or the promotion entry process through the widget, the participantis directed to invite friends to the promotion by using one of twomethods. The participant may select friends from his social networkfriends list which is connected to the widget via services such asGoogle's FriendConnect, Facebook's FacebookConnect, MySpace'sDataAvailability project and other similar services that enablethird-party applications or websites external to social networks toaccess a user's data and friends list contained within social networks,and to transmit users' activity information back to the newsfeeds,minifeeds and other such activity feeds contained within socialnetworks. Alternatively or additionally, the participant may type infriends' email addresses or select friends from his email address bookwhich the participant can download into the widget from such emailservice providers as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.

In one embodiment the participant interacts with the promotion via aninteractive webpage or webpages instead of a widget. The interactivewebpage or webpages provide an entry form for the promotion and enablethe participant to interact with the promotion. By connecting withservices such as Google's FriendConnect, Facebook's FacebookConnect,MySpace's DataAvailability project and other similar services, theinteractive webpage or webpages integrate the promotion with the viralfeatures of the participating social media-based platforms and accessthe data contained in a participant's social media-based platformprofile without requiring participants to migrate away from theinteractive webpage or webpages. In one embodiment, the participant mayclick on a banner, button, or link that takes the participant to theinteractive webpage or webpages for entering and interacting with thepromotion. In one embodiment, the banner, button, or link may be locatedon an organization's website which advertises the promotion; aparticipant who clicks on one of these objects will be taken to theinteractive webpage or webpages where he can enter and/or interact withthe promotion. In one embodiment, the interactive webpage or webpagesmay be hosted by the web application server 112.

In one embodiment, an organization may choose to use a webpage dedicatedto the entry process for their promotion, rather than a widget, becausethe widget may not provide sufficient graphics or other text, as desiredby the organization to advertise the promotion. In one embodiment, anorganization may select the widget because of its compact size andability to enable a participant to interact with and/or enter apromotion without the participant needing to migrate away from thewebpage upon which the widget is displayed, for example, theorganization's webpage

When the chosen entry point is on the organization's social networkwebpage or other webpage within one of the participating socialmedia-based platforms, a participant clicks on a banner, widget, or linkthat advertises the promotion on the particular webpage, and theparticipant is directed to add the promotion application to theparticipant's social network profile. Alternatively, the participant mayclick on a banner, a link in a newsfeed or minifeed, a link in a friendinvitation, or any link to the promotion generated by a viral feature ofthe social media-based platform, and the participant will be directed toadd the promotion application to the participant's social networkprofile. In one embodiment, the participant may click on the banner,widget, or link and directly enter the promotion without downloading thepromotion application to his social network profile.

At decision block 425, the system determines if the organization haschosen to have an entry point to the promotion on a webpage external tothe participating social media-based platforms. If the organizationchooses to establish an entry point for the promotion on a webpage orwebpages external to the participating social media-based platforms(block 425—Yes), at block 430, the system provides software code, suchas HTML or Javascript code, that may be copied and pasted into a webpageor webpages. The organization is also provided the option of publishingits promotion via a microsite linked to the organization's webpage orwebpages. For the first option, the software code displays a widget onthe webpage(s); the widget advertises the promotion and enables aparticipant to interact with and enter the promotion, thus the widgetfunctions as an entry point to the promotion. In one embodiment theorganization can select from a variety of widget templates that offerdifferent design, layout and color options. Each template has its ownunique software code that the organization can copy and paste into awebsite(s) to display the widget. In one embodiment the organization maybe provided with the option to display a clickable banner, button, orlink on the webpage(s) instead of a widget. Clicking on the banner,button, or link would take a participant to a webpage containing thepromotion entry form.

For the microsite option, the organization representative does not needto paste code into a webpage. The promotion administration softwarepermits the representative to simply click on an appropriate button thattriggers publication of the organization's microsite.

The process continues to block 435 where the system presents a list ofthe participating social media-based platforms with which theorganization's promotion has been integrated. The system also provideslinks corresponding to these participating social media-based platformsto which the organization can, if it wishes, add a promotionbanner/entry point to particular webpages within those participatingsocial networks. The webpages may be those that the organizationmaintains within the selected social media-based platforms.Alternatively or additionally, the webpages may also be maintained byentities other than the organization that permit the organization toinsert promotion banners/entry points. The system receives the selectedsocial media-based platforms at block 440.

In one embodiment, regardless of whether the organization chooses to adda promotion banner/entry point to particular webpages within theparticipating social media-based platforms, the promotion applicationwill list the organization's promotion on a promotion listing page, witha clickable link, within the participating social network basedplatforms. In one embodiment the organization's promotion will also belisted on a promotion listing webpage that is external to theparticipating social media-based platforms. Thus, a participant mayeasily find and enter the promotion without having to go to a particularorganization's webpage.

At block 445, the system provides the organization with two options forintegrating a promotion with a social media-based platform. For thefirst option, a banner is added to the webpages of the specified socialmedia-based platforms. The details for publishing a banner on webpageswithin different social media-based platforms may vary. However, as anexample, the process for publishing a promotion banner on theorganization's Facebook webpage(s) will be described. Clicking on theFacebook link provided at block 435 takes the organization'srepresentative to a Facebook page where the representative can click ona link to download the promotion application for publishing promotionbanners within Facebook. Because the application is downloaded to abusiness page on Facebook, the promotion application recognizes that theuser is an organization and provides customized features for businessusers. In one embodiment, the organization downloads a customizedbusiness version of the promotion application. The organization is thenprompted to provide its log-in information supplied to the promotionadministration software that it previously established at block 405.After inputting the log-in information, the organization is taken to awebpage where the organization's promotions that are integrated with thepromotion application in Facebook are listed. A banner publicationbutton is displayed next to each promotion which, when clicked, will addthe banner for that promotion to the organization's Facebook page(s).The process ends at block 499, and at this point the promotion is readyto be entered from the organization's social network page and/or awebpage external to the participating social networks. Alternatively,the start of the promotion may be delayed until a specific date receivedby the system at block 410.

For the second option, the organization can create a dedicated tabwithin the organization's social network page within which they canpublish one or more promotions, such as provided for by the socialnetwork Facebook.

In one embodiment, a promotion banner may be added to a webpage within aparticipating social media-based platform that is not controlled by theorganization running the promotion, if the controller of the webpageagrees. For the example Facebook platform, the controller of the webpagewould download the promotion application from within Facebook first andthen go through a similar process as described above for adding a bannerfor the promotion to the webpage.

In one embodiment, an organization may paste the software code fordisplaying a widget on one or more webpages within a participatingsocial media-based platform if the platform permits pasting softwarecode for widgets, for example the MySpace platform.

If the organization chooses to not publish the promotion on its ownwebpage or another webpage external to the social media-based platforms(block 425—No), the process continues at block 435 as described above.

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict flow diagrams 500A and 500B illustrating anexample process of determining a participant's entry point to apromotion, processing promotion entries, and post-promotion processing,according to one embodiment.

The process starts at decision block 505 where the system determines ifa participant has indicated an interest in the promotion. Interest inthe promotion is indicated when a participant clicks on a link to enterthe promotion. There are multiple ways for a participant to enter apromotion. The participant may click on a widget, banner, or link on theorganization's website or e-newsletter, on a widget, banner, or link onother webpages external to the participating social media-basedplatforms, or on a widget, banner, or link within a social media-basedplatform, such as on the organization's webpage within a social networkor on a link generated by a viral feature of a social network, such as anewsfeed, minifeed, or friend invite. The participant may also click ona link in a banner advertisement, which will direct the participant tothe promotion widget or webpage for entering the promotion. If interestin the promotion is not detected (block 505—No), the system remains atdecision block 505 until a participant clicks on a promotion link.

If interest in the promotion is detected (block 505—Yes), at decisionblock 520, the system checks the date and time to determine if thepromotion is currently valid and still running. If the promotion hasended (block 520—No), at block 522, the system notifies the participantthat the promotion has expired.

The process continues to block 525 where the system may provide arandomly selected winner or winners for the promotion and transmit thename and contact information of the winners to the organization.Alternatively, the organization may decide to choose a winner or winnersin a different manner on its own. For example, if the promotion isseeking entries for a new product slogan, the organization may have itsown judging procedures.

At block 530, the system may provide communications that notifypromotion participants of the winner or winners of the promotion. If thesystem does not select the winners, the organization may provide theinformation to the system. Winners and non-winners may receive differentmessages. Communications may be done through email or through custommessages directed to the social network inbox of all participants.Alternatively or additionally, winners may be listed on theorganization's website and/or the organization's social network page.

At block 535, the system may provide to the organization either raw dataand/or analyzed data with statistics and/or graphs about theparticipants who entered the promotion. Data may include, but are notlimited to, a demographic breakdown of participants by age, gender, zipcode, the average age of participants, etc. Data may be obtaineddirectly from participants' entry forms. In one embodiment, aggregatedata may be provided by analyzing data from participants' social networkprofiles. The data and/or analysis may be available at a particularsecured website. Alternatively or additionally, the system may email theresults to the organization. The process ends at block 599, and thepromotion is complete.

If the promotion has not ended (block 520—Yes), at decision block 536,the system determines whether the participant clicked on a link within asocial media-based platform. If the participant clicked on a widget orlink outside of a social media-based platform (block 536—No), the systemchecks at decision block 537 to see whether the participant is eligibleto enter. A participant is eligible to enter the promotion only if hehas not exceeded a pre-set number of promotion entries or coupondownloads within a specified time period, where the number of entries ordownloads and the time period are determined by the organizationsponsoring the promotion. For example, if the organization specifiesthat a participant may enter a sweepstakes promotion up to a maximum ofthree times per day, and the participant has only entered once so farthat day, then the participant is eligible to enter. The system cancheck to see if a cookie has already been established on theparticipant's computer that includes information that the participanthas exceeded the number of entries or downloads for a given period oftime for that promotion. Although, cookies provide a way to trackwhether participants have previously entered a promotion, it is notfoolproof because a participant can circumvent this check by erasingrelated cookies from his computer's memory. Alternatively oradditionally, the user can be required to enter his email address, andthe number of promotion entries or coupon downloads can be tracked andassociated with the email address. If the participant is not eligible toenter (block 537—No), the process ends at block 599.

If the participant is still eligible to enter (block 537—Yes), thesystem provides the participant with an entry form at block 590. Thepromotion entry form prompts the participant for information that mayinclude, but is not limited to, name, email address, address, birthdate, gender, zip code, country of residence, and custom surveyquestions provided by the organization. In some embodiments, theparticipant may be able to interact with the promotion before fillingout an entry form (e.g. receive an instant win card before needing tocomplete an entry form) or interact with the promotion without fillingout an entry form (e.g. to vote for a participant-generated videoentry). In both cases, the widget integrates the promotion with theviral features of the participating social media-based platforms andaccesses the data contained in a participant's social media-basedplatform profile without requiring participants to migrate away from thewidget.

In one embodiment, the participant may be directed to enter and interactwith the promotion via a webpage rather than via a widget.

At block 591, the system receives the participant's entry form and/orany other information provided by the participant during the interactionwith the promotion.

Next, at decision block 588, the system offers the participant theoption to log into Facebook Connect or another service that enables thesystem to tap into the participant's social network data. If the systemdetermines that the participant does not want to log into a connectingservice (588—No), the process continues to block 592. If the systemdetermines that the participant does want to log into a connectingservice (block 588—Yes), the process continues to block 561.

After the participant has submitted the entry form or completed theentry process, the system invites the participant to invite theirfriends to interact with the promotion. In one embodiment, a participantmay increase his chances of winning a prize or increase the value of agiven discount or other incentive by inviting friends to enter thepromotion. At block 592, the system provides one or more ways to invitefriends to enter the promotion. In one embodiment, the system provideslinks to a list of services such as Google's FriendConnect, Facebook'sFacebookConnect, MySpace's DataAvailability project and other similarservices that enable third-party applications or websites external tosocial networks to access a user's data and friends list containedwithin social networks and to transmit participant activity data back tothe social networks. After logging into the chosen service, theparticipant is presented with a list of his social network friends, andhe can select friends to invite to the promotion. In one embodiment, aparticipant only needs to select from the list of services during thefirst interaction with the widget; during subsequent interactions withthe widget the participant will automatically be logged into the chosenservice. Further, by logging in to one of these services, theparticipant grants the web application server 112 access to theparticipant's unique identifier as assigned by the social network server108 of the social media-based platform maintaining the friends listaccessed by the participant. Then the web application server 112 ispermitted to access the personal data contained in the participant'ssocial media-based platform profile, subject to the social network'sprivacy and third party developer guidelines. Additionally, the webapplication server 112 is permitted to transmit information about theparticipant's interactions with the promotion to the newsfeeds,minifeeds and other user activity feeds of the participating socialnetwork. In addition, the participant agrees to the terms and conditionsand/or a privacy policy specified by the web application server thatapplies to the organization running the web application server.

The links in the list of services provided by the system at block 592may also include email service providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, andYahoo Mail. The participant may select friends from his email addressbooks maintained by these providers. Alternatively or additionally, theparticipant may simply type in friends' email addresses.

At block 593, the system receives the list of friends that theparticipant wishes to invite to enter the promotion or the emailaddresses of friends entered by the participant. The process continuesat block 563 as described below.

If the participant clicked on a link within a social media-basedplatform (block 536—Yes), at decision block 540, the system determineswhether the participant has previously downloaded the promotionapplication to the participant's social network profile. By downloadingthe promotion application, the web application server 112 is grantedaccess to the participant's unique identifier as assigned by the socialnetwork server 108 and is then able to access the personal datacontained in a participant's social media-based platform profile,subject to the social network's privacy and third party developerguidelines. In addition, the participant agrees to the terms andconditions and/or a privacy policy specified by the web applicationserver that applies to the organization running the web applicationserver. Because the web application server 112 stores each participant'sunique identifier number in a participant database 116, onlyparticipants who have not previously downloaded the promotionapplication are required to do so.

If the participant has not previously downloaded the promotionapplication (block 540—No), at block 545, the system directs theparticipant to a webpage with the promotion application available fordownloading. After the participant downloads the promotion applicationto the participant's social media profile, the system determines if theparticipant is eligible to enter the promotion at decision block 546. Asdescribed above, a participant is eligible to enter the promotion onlyif he has not exceeded a pre-set number of promotion entries or coupondownloads within a specified time period, where the number of entries ordownloads and the time period are determined by the organizationsponsoring the promotion. Because the participant is accessing thepromotion via an application within a social network or via a servicesuch as Facebook Connect that enables the system to access the socialnetwork profile data of the participant, the system can identifyparticipants that have already entered or interacted with the promotionusing the participant's social network identification. In contrast tothe cookie method of determining the eligibility of a participant,greater security is provided by tracking participants through theirsocial network identification because participants cannot edit or tamperwith the recorded number of entries associated with the participant'sidentification. If a participant is determined ineligible to enter(block 546—No), the process ends at block 598. If a participant iseligible to enter (block 546—Yes), the process continues to block 555.In one embodiment, the participant may simply click on a promotionbanner and enter the promotion without downloading the promotionapplication.

If the participant has previously downloaded the promotion application(block 540—Yes), at block 555, the system directs the participant to awebpage with a promotion entry form. The promotion entry form promptsthe participant for information that may include, but is not limited to,name, email address, address, birth date, gender, zip code, country ofresidence, and custom survey questions provided by the organization. Inone embodiment, the promotion entry form is pre-populated withinformation pulled directly from the participant's social networkprofile page. In one embodiment, the information pulled from theparticipant's social network profile page may be used to expedite orsimplify the promotion entry process for the participant, whether or nota promotion entry form is used by the promotion. For example, in aninstant win promotion, the participant's information may be used insteadof requesting the participant to fill out a promotion entry form.

The promotion entry form also includes terms and conditions and/or aprivacy policy that apply to the organization administering thepromotion. The organization's terms and conditions and/or privacy policymay be different from those of the company running the web applicationserver. By submitting the promotion entry form, the participant agreesto the organization's terms and conditions and/or privacy policy. Afterthe participant fills out the promotion entry form and submits it, thesystem receives the information from the promotion entry form at block560.

In one embodiment, a promotion may allow participants to uploadparticipant-generated content including, but not limited to, videos,photos, artwork, and audio clips. Non-limiting examples of promotionsthat may allow uploading of participant-generated content include videocontests, photo contests, and song contests. It should be noted thatsome social networks may not allow participant-generated content to beintegrated into a particular social network's newsfeeds, minifeeds, orother viral features.

In one embodiment, a participant may increase his chances of winning aprize or increase the value of a given discount or other incentive byinviting friends within his social network to enter the promotion. Atblock 561, the participant is provided a list of the names of allfriends in the participant's social network. The participant can theneasily select which friends to invite to the promotion. At block 562,the system receives the participant's friends list.

If the organization is offering a coupon or voucher for participating inthe promotion, at block 563 the relevant identifying information ispulled from the participant's social network profile data, included withthe information on the coupon, and presented to the participant.Identifying information includes, but is not limited to, theparticipant's name, birth date, age, and a profile photo. Theparticipant can print the coupon, email the coupon, or click directly tothe organization's website to redeem the coupon.

At block 565, an invitation highlighting the prize, prizes, discounts orother incentives offered by the organization is automatically sent tothe social network inbox of the selected friends. These friends canchoose to accept the invitation which will direct them to the promotionentry form where they, too, can choose to invite friends from theirsocial network.

At block 570, after the participant has completed entry into thepromotion via the promotion application or the promotion widget, thesystem directs the participant to a promotion webpage that lists otherpromotions generated by the web application server 112 that arecurrently valid. In one embodiment, the participant is presented with alist of promotions that are matched or related to the interest anddemographic information contained in the participant's social networkprofile data. In one embodiment, the participant is presented with alist of promotions that the participant's social network friends haverecently entered and/or interacted with. This list may include specificinformation about the interactions that the participant's social networkfriends have had with the promotions, for example, it may displayparticipant generated content that the participant's social networkfriends have recently uploaded to participant-generated contentcontests, or it may display the highest scores of the participant'ssocial network friends who have recently interacted with games orquizzes. The participant may also choose to return to the originalpromotion (without having to re-enter the promotion entry form) toinvite more friends to increase the participant's chances of winning aprize or increase the value of a given discount or other incentive.However, the rules of the promotion or social media-based platformrunning the promotion may limit a participant to entering the promotionno more than once a day or may limit the number of friends that can beinvited daily.

In one embodiment, after the participant has completed entry into thepromotion, the participant is directed to a custom banner thatencourages the participant to visit the organization's website or socialnetwork webpage.

In one embodiment, the participant is automatically directed to theorganization's website or social network page upon completing the entryprocess.

At block 575, the system automatically generates a newsfeed that mayappear on the newsfeed page of the participant's social network friends.This newsfeed not only contains text telling readers about the promotionthat their friend entered but may also contain graphical, audio, orvideo banners promoting the brand of the organization running thepromotion and encouraging readers to enter the promotion. Readers canclick on these banners or on the newsfeed text and they will be directedto the promotion entry form. In one embodiment, the system may alsoautomatically generate minifeeds that appear in each participant'sprofile indicating that the participant has entered the promotion alongwith graphical, audio, or video mini-banners promoting the brand of theorganization running the promotion. In one embodiment, other viralfeatures of the social network may be used to spread the word about theorganization and the promotion.

At decision block 580, the system determines whether a viewer hasclicked on a mini-banner, a link in a newsfeed, a link in a friendinvite, or any link to the promotion generated by a viral feature of thesocial media-based platform. If no participant has clicked on themini-banner, newsfeed link, friend invite, or other viral feature link(block 580—No), the system returns to decision block 505 to awaitanother's participant's interest in the promotion. If a participant doesclick on the mini-banner, newsfeed link, friend invite, or other viralfeature link (block 580—Yes), the system returns to decision block 520to determine whether the promotion is currently valid. The processcontinues as described above.

It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that other types ofpromotions (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, instant win games,participant-generated content contests (including contests where thegeneral public votes to determine the winner or winners), quizzes,games, company-branded games (including advergames), product sampling,and give-aways such as coupons and vouchers) may also be run with theonline promotion technology, resulting in linking of these promotionswith the viral features of social networks. For these differentpromotion formats, the online promotion would be customized according tothe promotion's rules and unique features and still fall within thescope of this disclosure. For example, an instant win contest may beimplemented such that a participant who fills out an entry form isimmediately provided with an electronic scratch and win. In this case,the promotion rules may specify that the participant need not wait untilthe end of the promotion to be confirmed as a winner and to win a prize.

It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that other versionsof the online promotion technology may also be implemented. For example,white-label versions of the promotion technology may be provided thatenable the organization to have more customized branding and featureswhile still enabling the promotion to benefit from the core technologywhich integrates promotions with the viral features of social networks.

Embodiments of the invention described above enable organizations to runpromotions that participants enter either within a social network orfrom outside of social media-based platforms and that take advantage ofthe viral power of social networks. By integrating promotions with thefriend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds and other features thatdisplay online activities of users and people in the users' socialnetwork, and notifications, requests, and other social media-basedplatform features to deliver messages to members of the one or moresocial media-based platforms, organizations are enabled to runpromotions that can be spread virally within the social networks. Aparticipant entering a promotion that is integrated with a socialmedia-based platform can, with a few easy clicks, invite their socialnetwork friends to enter the contest. In addition, a participant'sfriends will be able to read about the promotion on their social networknewsfeed page as a result of the newsfeed that may be generated whensomeone enters a promotion that is run using the promotion technology.These are highly powerful ways for organizations to cost effectivelyspread the word about their promotions and their brands.

There are many possible compensation schemes through which an owner oradministrator of the promotion technology may receive compensationincluding, but not limited to, generating promotion applications andproviding related services. For example, the organization that wishes torun a promotion may be required to pay a flat fee for each promotion,the fee for the promotion may be proportional to the duration that thepromotion is active, and/or a fee may be charged for each uniqueparticipant who enters the promotion. Alternatively or additionally, forthe case of white-label versions of the promotion technology, a licensemay be granted to an organization for running one or more promotions. Inone embodiment, an organization such as a marketing agency may choose tolicense the promotion technology to run one or more promotions for athird party organization's goods and/or services.

The above detailed description of examples of the invention is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, theinvention are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention,as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, whileprocesses or blocks are presented in a given order, alternativeembodiments may perform routines having functions, or employ systemshaving blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may bedeleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to providealternatives or sub-combinations. Each of these processes or blocks maybe implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes orblocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processesor blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed atdifferent times.

Various features are described which may be exhibited by someembodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements aredescribed which may be requirements for some embodiments but not otherembodiments.

The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples ofany terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and in no way limitsthe scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term.Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given inthis specification.

Although examples have been described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges can be made to these examples. Accordingly, the specificationand drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than ina restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: accessing and harvestingprofile information of users of a social media platform; receivinginterest in an online promotion from a participant through an entrypoint; harvesting identification information from a social media profileof the participant based at least on the accessing; generating apersonalized promotion for the participant containing at least some ofthe participant's identification information including securing thepersonalized promotion by providing a means for verifying integrity ofthe personalized promotion at a time for redemption wherein the meansincludes a verifiable portion of the participant's identificationinformation obtained by the accessing; and distributing the personalizedpromotion to the participant, wherein the identification information onthe personalized promotion provides a higher level of security andauthenticity than promotions that do not contain such identificationinformation.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prompting theparticipant to provide a list of online social network contacts who canalso interact with the online promotion; and automatically sendingpersonalized invitations to enter the online promotion to the list ofcontacts provided by the participant.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising receiving interest in the online promotion from a contact inthe list of contacts and inviting the contact to provide a further listof social network contacts to interact with the online promotion.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the invitations are sent to a network inboxof the contacts.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receivingdesign work for the online promotion.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe social media platform enables generation and exchange ofuser-generated content.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the socialmedia platform includes viral features including one or more ofnewsfeeds, minifeeds or contact invites.
 8. The method of claim 7,further comprising automatically displaying banners within the viralfeatures of the social media platform when the participant enters theonline promotion.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the entry pointincludes one or more of: an organization's website; a widget, banner, orlink within the social media platform; a widget, banner, or link on awebpage external to the social media platform; or a link generated by aviral feature of the social media platform.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the social media platform is configured to transmit useractivity information through the viral features within the social mediaplatform.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising directing theparticipant to download a promotion application to the participant'ssocial network profile.
 12. An article of manufacture comprising: acomputer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which whenexecuted by a processor on the computer, cause the computer to perform amethod of disseminating online promotion campaigns, the instructionscomprising: instructions for accessing and harvesting profileinformation of users of a social media platform; instructions forreceiving interest in an online promotion from a participant through anentry point; instructions for harvesting identification information froma social media profile of the participant; instructions for generating apersonalized promotion for the participant containing at least some ofthe participant's identification information including securing thepersonalized promotion by providing a means for verifying integrity ofthe personalized promotion at a time for redemption wherein the meansincludes a verifiable portion of the participant's identificationinformation obtained by the accessing; and instructions for distributingthe personalized promotion to the participant, wherein theidentification information on the personalized promotion provides ahigher level of security and authenticity than promotions that do notcontain such identification information.
 13. The article of manufactureof claim 12, further comprising: instructions for prompting theparticipant to provide a list of online social network contacts who canalso interact with the online promotion; and instructions forautomatically sending personalized invitations to enter the onlinepromotion to the list of contacts provided by the participant.
 14. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 12, further comprising instructions forreceiving interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list ofcontacts and instructions for inviting the contact to provide a furtherlist of social network contacts to interact with the online promotion.15. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the invitations aresent to a network inbox of the contacts.
 16. The article of manufactureof claim 12, further comprising instructions for receiving design workfor the online promotion.
 17. The article of manufacture of claim 12,wherein the social media platform enables generation and exchange ofuser-generated content.
 18. The article of manufacture of claim 12,wherein social media platform includes viral features including one ormore of newsfeeds, minifeeds or contact invites.
 19. The article ofmanufacture of claim 18, further comprising instructions forautomatically displaying banners within the viral features of the socialmedia platform when the participant enters the online promotion.
 20. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 18, wherein the entry point includes oneor more of: an organization's website; a widget, banner, or link withinthe social media platform; a widget, banner, or link on a webpageexternal to the social media platform; or a link generated by a viralfeature of the social media platform.
 21. The article of manufacture ofclaim 18, wherein the social media platform is configured to transmituser activity information through the viral features within the socialmedia platform.
 22. The article of manufacture of claim 12, furthercomprising instructions for directing the participant to download apromotion application to the participant's social network profile.
 23. Aweb application server comprising: a promotion generation module coupledwith a network interface through a communications module, the promotiongeneration module configured to: access and harvest profile informationof users of a social media platform; receive interest in an onlinepromotion from a participant through an entry point; harvestidentification information from a social media profile of theparticipant; generate a personalized promotion for the participantcontaining at least some of the participant's identification informationincluding securing the personalized promotion by providing a means forverifying integrity of the personalized promotion at a time forredemption wherein the means includes a verifiable portion of theparticipant's identification information obtained by the accessing; anddistribute the personalized promotion to the participant, wherein theidentification information on the personalized promotion provides ahigher level of security and authenticity than promotions that do notcontain such identification information; and a communications moduleconfigured to automatically send personalized invitations to enter theonline promotion to a list of contacts provided by the participant. 24.The web application server of claim 23, wherein the promotion generationmodule is further configured to prompt the participant to provide a listof online social network contacts who can also interact with the onlinepromotion, and the communications module is further configured toreceive interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list ofcontacts.
 25. The web application server of claim 24, wherein thepromotion generation module further invites the contact to provide afurther list of social network contacts to interact with the onlinepromotion.
 26. The web application server of claim 23, wherein theinvitations are sent to a network inbox of the contacts.
 27. The webapplication server of claim 23, wherein the social media platformenables generation and exchange of user-generated content.
 28. The webapplication server of claim 23, wherein the social media platformincludes viral features including one or more of newsfeeds, minifeeds orcontact invites.
 29. The web application server of claim 28, wherein theentry point includes one or more of: an organization's website; awidget, banner, or link within the social media platform; a widget,banner, or link on a webpage external to the social media platform; or alink generated by a viral feature of the social media platform.
 30. Theweb application server of claim 29, wherein the social media platform isconfigured to transmit user activity information through the viralfeatures within the social media platform.
 31. The web applicationserver of claim 23, further comprising directing the participant todownload a promotion application to the participant's social networkprofile.
 32. The web application server of claim 23, further comprisinga data collection and analysis module to harvest information formarketing and branding through the online promotion.